Hewlett-Packard has announced its lineup of gaming PCs it is going to offer its clients for back to school season. The personal computers will feature next-generation AMD Radeon R9 and R7 300-series graphic adapters. The upcoming HP Envy Tower and the HP Envy Phoenix Tower personal computers based on the …
Read More »AMD delays FreeSync support on multi-GPU systems
Advanced Micro Devices said this week that its FreeSync technology will not be supported by systems running multiple AMD Radeon graphics cards for a while. The GPU developer revealed no information regarding problems it ran into with its FreeSync and CrossFire technologies. The company is confident that it will be …
Read More »Japanese company unveils micro-USB hub for smartphones, tablets
Even though loads of accessories for mobile devices nowadays are wireless, there are a lot of useful wired gadgets that can be connected to a smartphone or tablet. Unfortunately, the vast majority of mobile devices feature only one micro-USB port today. However, a company from Japan has released a tiny …
Read More »GlobalFoundries is working on 10nm process technology internally
Just like other contract makers of semiconductors, GlobalFoundries is already developing its next-generation 10nm process technology. However, despite of the fact that GlobalFoundries is about to acquire IBM’s semiconductor manufacturing business and the company’s close ties to Samsung Electronics, the 10nm fabrication tech is developed completely internally at the moment. …
Read More »AMD may be developing APUs for TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process technology
Although leaked roadmaps of Advanced Micro Devices indicate that the company’s next year’s accelerated processing units and central processing units will all be made using 14nm FinFET fabrication process at GlobalFoundries, this does not mean that AMD plans to cease using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as a production partner. For …
Read More »AMD cuts price of Radeon R9 285 in Europe
Advanced Micro Devices and its partners have started to cut prices of graphics cards based on the Radeon R9 285 graphics processing units in Europe. It is unclear how long will the promotion will last and whether it is a widespread price-cut or an attempt to clear out some local …
Read More »Phytium to detail 64-core ARMv8-A processor for HPC in August
The U.S. government recently banned sales of Xeon Phi co-processors for high-performance computing applications to numerous supercomputer sites in China, slowing down development of local research. But perhaps, China will not need any HPC chips from the world’s renowned suppliers in the future as domestic companies are developing a number …
Read More »Apple Watch costs less than $84 to build – analysts
All modern mobile devices carry rather hefty price tags, but it is not a secret that their production costs are relatively low. Apple Watch is clearly not an exception. What is a bit surprising is that despite of the fact that the device is hard to produce, it has the …
Read More »Nokia: We will consider brand licensing model for smartphones
Even though Nokia Corp. does not plan to manufacture its own smartphones in the future, the company confirmed this week that it would consider design and brand licensing opportunities. Essentially, it means that in late 2016 smart handsets with Nokia name on them may return to the market. After selling …
Read More »Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 Ti to carry GM200-310 GPU – report
Although it was expected that Nvidia Corp.’s upcoming GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics adapter will be powered by the very same chip as the GeForce GTX Titan X, it now turns out that the new graphics board will be based on a version of the GM200 graphics processor with a …
Read More »Gigabyte adds ‘Broadwell’ CPU support to Intel Z97, H97 platforms
Gigabyte Technology on Thursday said that it had released new BIOS versions for all of its latest LGA1150 mainboards that add support for Intel Corp.’s upcoming Core i-series 5000-sequence “Broadwell” microprocessors. The move confirms imminent introduction of Intel’s new central processing units. From now on, all Gigabyte mainboards based on …
Read More »UMC skips 20nm planar process tech, leaps ahead to 16nm FinFET
United Microelectronics Corp., the world’s second largest contract maker of semiconductors, said that it would not offer 20nm planar fabrication process, but will jump directly to 16nm FinFET manufacturing technology. Skipping the node will help the company to catch up with its competitors. Although it was widely expected that UMC …
Read More »TAG Heuer’s Swiss smartwatch to cost $1400/£900
LVMH, is a French multinational luxury goods conglomerate, has announced pricing of TAG Heuer’s upcoming smartwatch, which it is developing in collaboration with Intel and Google. The first smart timepiece from a Swiss watchmaker will surprisingly not be too expensive because the product is primarily aimed at younger audience. TAG Heuer’s smartwatch will …
Read More »No more cats: AMD reconsiders ultra-low-power CPU roadmap
Advanced Micro Devices first revealed plans to develop special low-power/low-cost x86 micro-architectures in mid-2007 in a bid to compete for ultra-portable and inexpensive devices. The micro-architectures got their names – Bobcat, Jaguar and Puma – from cats to emphasize their agility and efficiency. Eight years later AMD abandons development of …
Read More »AMD roadmap leaks: Summit Ridge, Bristol Ridge, Basilisk and Styx
An alleged AMD insider has published what it appears to be the company’s microprocessor roadmap for 2016. If the plan is accurate and AMD manages to execute it, then next year the company will release a top-to-bottom family of central processing units based on “Zen” micro-architecture as well as one …
Read More »MSI unveils Prestige series laptops: performance meets business features
MicroStar International on Wednesday introduced its new family of mobile computers that was designed to wed performance, quality and relative portability necessary for road warriors. Modern notebooks have rather strict positioning: there are ultra-thin business laptops with limited performance, there are extremely advanced gaming or workstations notebooks with limited transportability …
Read More »Jony Ive: Apple Watch is a not a competitor for mechanical watch
Apple Watch is finally here and it is available for various segments of the market, addressing different customers with various usage models. Even though there are expensive Watch Edition models in the lineup, Apple does not think that its new devices compete against high-end mechanical timepieces. When Apple introduced its …
Read More »FB: Oculus is in development, too early for volume shipments
A high-ranking executive from Facebook, the owner of Oculus VR, implied last week that the highly-anticipated virtual reality headset from the company may not see the light of day this year. He indicated that Oculus VR was still working on its hardware and that it was too early to talk …
Read More »Acer: We will not quit the PC market
Acer Group used to be one of the world’s top PC makers half a decade ago, but in the recent years the company’s market share dropped rather dramatically. Acer announced major reorganization efforts in 2013 and while all of them yet have to prove their viability, the company is confident …
Read More »Windows 10 PCs may not hit the market in time for back-to-school season
Although Microsoft Corp. plans to make its Windows 10 operating system available to PC makers this summer, actual systems featuring the new OS will not hit the market ahead of the important back-to-school season, market analysts believe. Recently Lisa Su, chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices, said that Microsoft …
Read More »More AMD ‘Zen’ CPU details emerge: quad-core units, inclusive cache, high-speed interconnects
Anonymous insiders from Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday revealed more details about the company’s upcoming microprocessors based on “Zen” micro-architecture. Just as expected, the new “Zen” central processing units will be dramatically different compared to “Bulldozer” CPUs. Moreover, as it appears, AMD intends to reconsider some of the things that …
Read More »Patriot unveils world’s first USB flash drive with type-C connector
Patriot Memory, a well-known supplier of memory modules, NAND flash-based devices as well as various peripherals, on Tuesday introduced one of the world’s first USB flash drives with reversible type-C connector. Initially, owners of Apple’s latest MacBook laptops will use the new drives, but eventually such storage devices are going …
Read More »Average selling price of Apple iPhone rises to $659
Despite of strong U.S. dollar, Apple managed to increase average selling price of its iPhone smartphones to $659 in its fiscal 2015 second quarter ended March 28, 2015. The increase is a result of strong demand for more expensive high-capacity models as well as iPhone 6 Plus. During the quarter, …
Read More »AMD to release ‘Kaveri Refresh’ chips in late May – report
Advanced Micro Devices plans to formally introduce its code-named “Godavari” (also known as “Kaveri Refresh”) accelerated processing units next month, slightly ahead of Computex Taipei trade-show. While the new chips will feature slightly improved performance compared to existing APUs from the company, they will hardly improve AMD’s competitive position on …
Read More »Diagram of AMD’s ‘Zen’ CPU core leaks: six integer pipes, two 256-bit FPUs [UPDATED]
UPDATE: The original story stated that it described an implementation of an AMD microprocessor based on “Zen” micro-architecture. In fact, the story describes one “Zen” core. Although there are a lot of rumours about AMD’s next-generation code-named “Zen” microprocessors, there are not a lot of official or even semi-official details about …
Read More »Logitech set to stop selling inexpensive OEM mice
Logitech, one of the world’s top makers of personal computer peripherals, has announced its quit from the market of affordable OEM mice supplied by PC manufacturers and which are sometimes found in retail. Sales of such devices got lower in the recent quarters because of competition. From now on, the …
Read More »Intel to help partners launch Atom x3 ‘SoFIA’-based tablets for $79
Intel Corp. will assist its partners in releasing inexpensive tablets based on the company’s recently announced Atom x3 system-on-chips code-named “SoFIA”. The slates based on the SoC will feature different screen sizes and will address various market segments. Intel plans to offer its partners a new set of reference designs …
Read More »Apple aims to sell 20 million Apple Watches in 2015
Apple has already sold over a million of Apple Watch via its online stores in different countries. Many analysts expect total shipments of Apple’s smart timepieces to be very high already in the first year, but Apple’s plans are far more ambitious. The company reportedly intends to ship as many …
Read More »Nokia’s return to smartphone market confirmed by executive
President of Nokia China has confirmed the company’s plans to return to the market of smartphones next year. He indicated in an interview that the company is currently evaluating different options and building its own manufacturing facilities is one of them. This week Mike Wang, president of Nokia China, participated …
Read More »New unlocked AMD A10, A8 ‘Kaveri’ APUs detailed
Specifications of the upcoming accelerated processing units from Advanced Micro Devices have been published by a web-site. As expected, the new hybrid processors code-named “Kaveri” are only slightly faster that those, which have been available on the market for a long time. As it turns out, AMD is about to …
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